By this, I mean why are so many of the quests about killing the bad guy? By this, I don't mean the Dark Brotherhood or Thieves Guild of course as it's already a quest line for the evil characters.. But I mean in the case of the College of Winterhold, the antagonist is blatantly evil.

Or in the case of the Civil War, where the threat of the Thalmor is so blatantly evil. There's not a single redeeming factor for the Thalmor in any perspective that I can find.

Or in the Dawnguard questline where obviously the vampires are evil. They're not even trying to grab prey to survive anymore, which makes them at the very least, redeemable the same way a tiger isn't evil for eating a human. They're using their diet as an excuse for things that they don't need to do to survive.

So basically, what I'm asking is, why are so many characters so blatantly evil? Not just their actions either, but their motives and everything about them. Doesn't that make them shallow?

Well, I agree. There's too much Black and White.

But on the topic of the Thalmor, realize they want to unmake creation so all of their spirits can live for eternity in pure magic. They think creation was a mistake, and they want to undo it. They're not causing suffering just to cause suffering.

But of course (sorry for Godwin), you could say the same about the leaders of the Nazi party. They wanted a "perfect humanity" so to them all of it was justified.

Well dark bethesda not all that great in the writing the department.

Thats why bethesda should hire obsedian to do the writing dear god a TES with obsedian writing it would be.... so godly